IPv6 vs. IPv4: To Switch or Not to Switch?

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The tech world has recently been rocked by the last allocation of a /28 block. In layman’s terms: IPv4 address space has been all used up.

The doom prophets and pessimistic among us are shouting that the conversion to IPv6 is nigh, and that we should all be converting to IPv6 to ensure that the Internet doesn’t cut us off forever. They storm into our offices, demanding that all of our servers and desktops be migrated to this networking Holy Grail, lest doom and gloom fall upon us forever!

Are they right? Only slightly.

The fact of the matter is, the exhaustion of the IPv4 address pool won’t have a significant impact on the vast majority of small businesses for awhile. 6to4 translation will be done at major carrier routers, and most small businesses won’t be affected by the sudden lack of public IPv4 addresses; most use only a couple dozen, if that, and the IPv6 switch won’t noticeably affect them right away.

This is doubly more relevant to your LAN, which is most likely NATed and allocating private IPv4 addresses to your internal network. There’s no fear of running out of address space here, and your DHCP server can continue handing out 10.1′s and 192.168′s until kingdom come. The problem of IPv6 is really one of public connectivity, an arena that, for the most part, doesn’t really concern a LAN very much. Furthermore, there are most likely legacy systems, like old printers, scanners, or workstations, that simply do not have IPv6 functionality built-in and will not survive the transition to an IPv6-only internal network.

That said, there are some merits to the idea of planning a transition to IPv6. For one, it’s the future; it’s never a good idea to resist the new technologies put forth, and it is a far better idea to have an IPv6 transition plan now than risk a haphazard transition five years from now when it’s forced upon you. The best idea in this case is to start small and work gradually to IPv6. Take note of what machines are IPv6 ready, and which aren’t, and what systems will have to be upgraded to IPv6 compatibility. When it comes time to order new machines, printers, or scanners, take care to buy ones that are IPv6-ready and start to slowly but surely retire those devices that cannot have IPv6 compliance on your network.

The transition to IPv6 will not be without its headaches, and the recent depletion of the IPv4 address pool is definitely a big concern. The immediate and sudden migration to IPv6, however, is unwarranted; while IPv6 migration is an important and necessary eventual step in every network, there is time to take the migration slowly and surely, coming up with a good plan of attack and gradually, painlessly moving your network from IPv4 to IPv6.